About haste

I have been talking a bit about “haste” in class lately. I thought I would explain it at greater length.

I was watching an Iaido demonstration recently, and it struck me that one of the practitioners was truly excellent and the rest were merely “quite good.”

So what made the difference between excellent and good? After all, they were performing the same forms, basically the same way.

It struck me that the excellent practitioner had no “haste” in his movement, though he was quite fast. He was “in the moment” of whatever part of the movement he was in. The other students, it seemed to me, were thinking ahead to their next movement… not living in the movement they were currently performing. The level of “presence” was quite different in the excellent practitioner.

We see this in Aikido. It usually takes the form of students rushing to throw, almost skipping the preliminary movements to try to get quickly to throwing or pinning the uke with force.

The most important part of any technique is the beginning. If you have made the preliminary movements properly, the throw is much easier and more effective.

First you have to use correct footwork to enter and position yourself correctly for the technique. This requires perception and attention.

Next, you have to unbalance the partner. Again, this requires your attention and commitment.

The throw or pin comes after that, and is usually simple if you have executed the first two stages properly.

You have to be “present” in the first two movements to do them well… you shouldn’t hurry through them to rush to your goal of throwing uke.

Once this becomes second nature, the stages become invisible to an uninformed eye since they are executed very quickly.

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on Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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